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Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - Bill of Rights

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Preservation and Proposition

Our mission is to document the pivotal Second Amendment events that occurred in Frontier Mercersburg, and its environs, and to heighten awareness of the importance of these events in the founding of our Nation.

We are dedicated to the preservation of the place where the Second Amendment was "born" and to the proposition that the Second Amendment (the "right to bear arms") is the keystone of our Liberty and the Republic.

Monday, December 23, 2013

A leading Garden State Gun rights advocate told Guns & Patriots New Jersey state laws that prohibit gun owners the right to carry firearms in public puts lives in danger and penalizes innocent citizens.

Criminals in this state realize that anybody they attack is a defenseless victim, said Frank Jack Fiamingo, president of the New Jersey Second Amendment Society. NJ2AS promotes the free exercise of Second Amendment protected-rights within the community and New Jersey Legislature.

Except for a few narrowly-defined exceptions, no one is able to properly defend their lives outside of their homes, he said. If you live in New Jersey the criminal already knows you are a victim; the criminal already knows you are not armed.

Fiamingo said an example is the case of Dustin Friedland, a 30-year old Hoboken-attorney shot in the head and killed, when two assailants attempted to steal his 2012 Range Rover in the parking lot of Short Hills Mall in Essex County last week.
The shooting was not about the car, said Fiamingo. The young father was killed trying to protect his wife.

Jamie Friedland ,who was also at the scene, was not injured in the shooting, he said.

No one knows what could have happened if Friedland was armed, he said. But we do know that the criminal knew his victim was unarmed.

It is outrageous that people do not have the option of properly defending their lives and their families, he said. Criminals have nothing to worry about it's the law-abiding citizens who have done nothing wrong, who do.

Fiamingo said arming even a small percentage of the state's population would have a deterrent effect against crime. Criminals would not be so bold to assume that the person they are attacking is a victim.

When the State of Florida routinely began granting conceal carry permits 2 percent of the population signed-up and chose to carry a firearm, he said. As a result crime dropped significantly.

Giving criminals something to worry about is an effective tactic, he said.

The victim might be someone who is armed; it might be someone who is very alert; it might be someone who keeps their hand on their gun just in case as they walk through a mall parking lot, he said. Without the option of carrying a firearm, people are unable defend themselves.

Currently in the Garden State handguns in public are banned unless one is an off-duty police officer or in a limited capacity a security guard, he said.

With the proper licensing requirements, such as background check and mental health record check, one can possess a firearm inside their home but there is no real possession of a working, loaded firearm outside of your home.

New Jersey gun owners can possess an unloaded firearm that is locked in the trunk of one's vehicle; to and from the range, to and from the gunsmith, to and from the store the purchase was made, or when in the process of moving from one legal residence to another, said Fiamingo.

You can carry a rifle strapped around your back, but it cannot be loaded, he said. An unloaded firearm in one's trunk or strapped around your back, will not be any good if you are being attacked.

Carrying a firearm in public for the purpose of protection should not be considered a crime, he said. A responsible law abiding citizen who carries a firearm is not going to all of a sudden rob a jewelry store.

Restricting citizens for wanting to exercise their constitutional right to protect themselves and their families is illogical, he said. The state makes concessions for protection of armored vehicles but denies that same right to the individual.

An armored car driver can protect themselves because they are protecting money, but we cannot carry firearms to protect our lives? asked Fiamingo.

It is absurd that government bodies who swear to uphold the Constitution work against the people, he said. The Second Amendment is part of the Constitution the government should be working with us.

What was guaranteed to the people in the Second Amendment has no relevance in the Garden State, he said. The purpose of the Second Amendment was to keep the balance of power with the people, of the people, for the people where it belongs.

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It All Started Here . . .

Frontier Mercersburg in 1765 was the "birthplace" of the right we now refer to as "the Second Amendment", or, "the right to bear arms". It was here that individuals for the first time, some would say divinely, embraced the link between "Life and Liberty". . . and struck the first blow for Freedom.

Historically the right to bear arms goes back even before our founding as a nation to the Glorious Revolution of 1689 when William III agreed to the English Bill of Rights. If one can look at revolution like a volcanic eruption in nature, you understand that often from the destruction come the seeds of new human values and beliefs. In this case the independence of the human spirit, the right to know God for oneself, and to trust your conscience was hard won in this revolution of the human soul.

One crucible begets the necessity for another and on the frontier in America the right to defend ones religious beliefs was becoming the right to participate in the decisions of government that impact my "self". Freedom of the soul was becoming freedom of the heart and mind. Smith's Rebellion began as an act they justified under the rubric of defending oneself because government had failed in its obligation to protect Life, Liberty and Property. This was the first assertion of this principle aimed directly at British Military Authority as well as the incompetent government of John Penn - anywhere in the colonies.

In the end, Smith's Rebellion was the first armed resistance against British Military Rule leading up to the American Revolution. It was the first American triumph over the best military force in the world. It was the first time upon defending oneself that Americans had proclaimed we can rule ourselves.

It would be ten years before the battles at Lexington and Concord.

...Let Them Take Arms

The "Right to Bear Arms" . . .or 2nd Amendment is one of the most discussed and contentious of all the amendments of the Bill of Rights. It is, in fact, the only amendment that contains not only the seeds but the actual instruments of the revolution itself. Further, it gives real affirmation to Thomas Jefferson's quote . . .

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

It is for this reason, if no other, that the Government and its functionaries vociferously assail and obfuscate the text of this simple assertion. More, it is for this reason, and in the face of the perennial onslaught that its defense and affirmation is essential to the survival of the republic.

Frontier Mercersburg & The Justice William Smith House

The frontier town of Mercersburg, PA. in the 1760's, although typical of many settlements along the Appalachian Mountains played a pivotal role in the creation of what was to become the "Bill of Rights".

Frontiersmen like James Smith and the Black Boys, many of whom were inhabitants of the Mercersburg environs, were early participants in a series of conflicts with the British government that established principles the eventually lead to the inclusion of the "right to bear arms" in the Bill of Rights.

Much of the focus, centers on the domicile (and likely place of business) of Justice William Smith.